A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circlue of our felicities.
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.
Government is not reason it is not eloquent it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil in its worst state, an intolerable one.
Government 'help' to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.
The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what's going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?
The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.
It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes.
So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear. That there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.
This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
Ohio claims they are due a president as they haven't had one since Taft. Look at the United States, they have not had one since Lincoln.
The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.
What I worry about would be that you essentially have two chambers, the House and the Senate, but you have simply, majoritarian, absolute power on either side. And that's just not what the founders intended.
The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them in parliament.
For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.
The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.
Ninety eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them.
People try to live within their income so they can afford to pay taxes to a government that can't live within its income.
Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is still there.
Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law it invites every man to become a law unto himself it invites anarchy.
Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.
The people are the government, administering it by their agents they are the government, the sovereign power.
Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper.
In a free society, government reflects the soul of its people. If people want change at the top, they will have to live in different ways. Our major social problems are not the cause of our decadence. They are a reflection of it.